The New York Times reported today on a poll conducted by New America Media, a coalition of ethnic news organizations, that attempted to gauge minority perceptions— about each other.  The poll surveyed African-Americans, Hispanics (I use this word because the poll did not say “Latino”) and Asians on various economic and social issues, and directly asked groups questions about other minority groups.  The findings are quite interesting—for example, the groups that likely have more immigrant members, Asian and Hispanic, seemed to have more faith in the so-called “American dream,” that if one works hard one will succeed economically.  African-Americans, on the other hand, were far less likely to agree.  Asians were also by far the least likely to indicate that their community experienced significant discrimination in the U.S., while contrastingly 92% of African-Americans responded in the affirmative.

There are obvious flaws in this survey, and the findings should certainly be taken with a grain of salt.  One of the most glaring questions I have in terms of the poll’s methodology was self-identification of respondents.  The three communities surveyed are extremely diverse—for example, there are a significant number of Latin and Caribbean people of African descent.  Who decides which category a person fits into?  Rather than relying only on these three broad groupings of “race,” the poll would be more useful if immigration status and socio-economic class background were also reported.

The poll is most interesting in its questions asked about other minority groups—attempting to measure whether the stereotypes of Black crime, undocumented Latin workers taking away jobs, and rude/racist Asian store owners actually have a hold over other minority groups.  Some of the statistics are indeed disheartening.  However, I think honest discussion of racism and other types of prejudice within and among communities of color is extremely important, particularly when we are trying to organize broad grassroots coalitions.  We also need to be aware of how prejudice within our communities has served to bolster white supremacy and continue oppression, such as in the labor movement.  But we cannot pretend that our experiences with racism are the same.  We do need to examine our own prejudices and enter into honest dialogue with each other before we can unite against racial discrimination and oppression.